Tag Archives: 1990

2024 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 10: Frankenhooker (1990)

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10. NEW YORK NEW YORK: A slice and dice set in the city so nice they named it New York.

Has there ever been a better video box?

Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) is a bioelectrical scientist who works at a power plant. His life in New Jersey was going so well until his fiancee Elizabeth’s (Patty Mullen) father (J.J. Clark) gives him a lawnmower as a wedding present. It goes wild — yes, really — and mows down Elizabeth.

Anyone else would move on or kill themselves. Not Jeffrey. He gets into self-trepanation, drilling holes into his own skull to take the edge off, as well as eating dinner surrounded by all of Elizabeth’s body parts that he could find. But hey, he knows circuits. So maybe he should leave New Jersey and go to New York City and kill sex workers to build his wife the perfect body, because that’s worked out so well in so many movies like The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.

Jeffrey rents all of Zorro’s (Joseph Gonzalez) girls for one night but gets second thoughts about giving them the super crack he’s invented. They find it, they smoke it, they blow up real good. And now Jeffrey has to assemble a puzzle of bloody body parts to create the perfect new body for his fiancee. She’s impressed but angry at where the parts came from and that she’s slept with — and blown to pieces — several clients before she got her memory back.

This ends with a monster made of sex worker parts dragging an evil pimp to a dungeon and Jeffrey’s head on another woman so that he and his bride can be in love forever. That’s creative.

Another trip into the hellish New York City of Frank Henenlotter, this was a movie that screamed at you in the horror department of your mom and pop video rental place. Literally. The box could talk. The movie that was inside more than lives up to the marketing.

This has an awesome cast. Beverly Bonner shows up as Casey, the same character she played in Brain Damage, Basket Case and Basket Case 2. Elizabeth’s mother is Louise Lasser, the star of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Horror host Zacherly is the weatherman. The girls of Zorro are played by Kimberly Taylor (Bedroom Eyes II), Charlotte J. Helmkamp (Playboy December 1982 Playmate of the Month), Jennifer Delora, Lia Chang, Susan Napoli (Penthouse Pet of the Month February 1986, AKA Stephanie Ryan in mainstream movies and Carrie McKayan in adult films), adult legend Heather Hunter, Gittan Goding, Vicki Darnell, Sandy Colosimo, Kathleen Gati and Sonya Hensley.

As for Spike the bartender, that’s the awesome Shirley Stoler from The Honeymoon Killers.

You can watch this on Tubi.

The Sizzlin’ Something Weird Summer Challenge 2024: The Scarlet Scorpion (1990)

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69 EsSINtial SWV Titles (September 15 – 21): Klon, who came up with this list, said “This isn’t the 69 BEST SWV movies, it isn’t my 69 FAVORITE SWV movies, my goal was to highlight 69 of the MOST SWV movies.” You can see the whole list here, including some of the ones I’ve already posted.

Rubens Francisco Lucchetti, who had once wrote for comics and pulp magazines, made this movie to honor Brazilian heroes like Morcego Nergo and O Sombra, with the name of the movie’s villain — The Scarlet Scorpion — taken from a radio series Lucchetti created that was based on Fu Manchu. There’s also Madame Ming, who is pretty much Madame Dragon from Terry and the Pirates mixed with Fu Manchu’s daughter Sumuru (who is also in the Jess Franco movies The Million Eyes of Sumuru and The Girl from Rio). The hero of this movie, Anjo, was a character created and played by radio actor Álvaro Aguiar for the radio series As Aventuras do Anjo, which was broadcast by Rádio Nacional from 1948 to 1965.

This movie is all about just how important radio was to Brazilians, as the public loves the show The Adventure of The Angel so much that its creator has become a millionaire and is about to make a movie about it. Fashion designer Gloria Campos dreams of meeting the announcer and creator of the show as she imagines the adventures come to life in her mind, yet the Scarlet Scorpion may be more real than anyone can imagine.

There’s also a striptease by Roberta Close, the first transgender model to pose for the Brazilian edition of Playboy. Shot a year after her gender confirmation surgery, Roberta fought the government for eight years to legally be female and has also walked the red carpet for Thierry Mugler, Guy Laroche and Jean Paul Gaultier.

Director Ivan Cardosa also made A Werewolf In the Amazon with Paul Naschy and the Coffin Joe documentary The Universe of Mojica Marins. He also made several of his own horror movies before this, such as The Secret of the Mummy and The Seven Vampires.

Even without knowing much about the history of Brazil’s superheroes and radio shows, this is a fun movie that mixes fantasy and reality for entertaining effect.

Junesploitation: Mirage (1990)

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June 24: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is Cars! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.

I’m a big fan of killer car movies. We can subgenre this into filones, such as possessed automobiles (The Car, Christine, Ferat Vampire, Maximum Overdrive, Super Hybrid), killers in vehicles (Duel, Joyride, Death Car on the Freeway, Death Proof, Wheels of Terror) and movies that have killers who get in and out of cars (The Hitcher, Hitcher In the Dark).  There are even ones where the hero drives a car to get revenge (Rolling Vengeance, The Wraith, The Gladiator).

Mirage is somewhere in the middle of these, as a black pick-up truck is seemingly driven by a young man who could also be a demon. And all he wants to do is kill everyone that comes to his desert to make out.

My wife lived in Vegas for a few years and when I went out to meet her family, we went and shot guns in the desert and had a picnic. She said no matter how many times she went to parties or events in the middle of said desert, she never saw anyone just take off their tops and get drunk in the middle of a place where you get dehydrated immediately.

Chris (Jennifer McAllister) and Greg (Kenneth Johnson) are introduced to us as they’re making love in the back of their truck with a toolbox on the accelerator as it just drives out in the infinite space of the desert, as if nothing could stop it or hurt them. Along with another couple who are just as into arguing as they are having make-up sex, Trip and Mary (Kevin McParland and Nicole Anton), and her ex Kyle (Todd Schaeffer) and his new girlfriend Bambi (Laura Albert), the desert seems as good a place as any — I recommend a furniture store like in Chopping Mall — to soft swing. Also: Kyle is Greg’s brother, which suggests that Chris is a horrible person.

Yes, after a day in the sun of being stalked by a black truck and having Greg and Kyle get in a punchup, the kids find a note written in blood that says, “You are all going to die!” This note is more than prophetic as the driver of the black truck even has grenades that he uses to blow these kids up real good. Thanks to Unsung Horrors, I learned that the bad guy — known only as Villain in the credits — is B.G. Steers, who may be Burr Steers, who was one of the radio voices in Reservoir Dogs and the “Flock of Seagulls” character in Pulp Fiction. His character — other than the out there Trip, who dies bleeding from the mouth and speaking of the astral plane.

Steers, if he is Burr Steers, also directed 17 Again, Igby Goes Down and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

This was directed by William Crain, who also made Midnight Fear, and co-wrote it with Chuck Hughes and Michael Crain. It’s interesting in that there are too few desert and daytime slashers, even if you can see Chekov’s bow and arrow appear from the very open of the film. Also: the best part is when one of the jocks utters a gay slur and promptly gets run over by a truck. Well, the best part other than the effects by R. Christopher Biggs, who went on to work on Demolition Man and the TV series Martin. One imagines he transformed Martin into Sheneneh.

Strangely, this movie has an SST Records soundtrack with bands like Sister Double Happiness, Minutemen, fIREHOSE and Dinosaur Jr. What, no Saint Vitus or Negativland?

My friends from Unsung Horrors did an episode about this, which you can listen to here:

You can watch this on YouTube.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2024: Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

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New Line was doing so well with Freddy that they thought that they could do the same with Leatherface, not realizing that while he’s the most out front member of the Sawyer Family, there is an entire brood to tell the stories about.

The final film to get an X before NC-17 was created, I will say that this movie brings the gore, even after the battle between the MPAA and New Line. I mean, the movie starts off with Leatherface taking off a woman’s face, so know what you’re getting into. Yet this was submitted eleven times for a review and most of the gore was lost; this was after the original script by David J. Schow (who also wrote the scripts for The Crow, Critters 3 and 4 and many other movies) had a naked man being literally sliced into two pieces. I assume the MPAA had more issues with seeing a nude man than the gore.

Director Jeff Burr got fired early in the film’s production, but when no one else wanted the job, he was back on. He’s already made another sequel, Stepfather II: Make Room for Daddy, and would also made Puppet Master 4 and 5 as well as Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings. He started his career with From A Whisper To a Scream and also directed The Werewolf Reborn!, Frankenstein & the Werewolf Reborn! and Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy.

The original trailer for this might be better than the actual movie — that’s Kane Hodder as Leatherface! — but you can’t deny a movie that has Ken Foree and Viggo Mortensen in the cast. And hey — Caroline Williams shows up in a cameo as Stretch, now a reporter.

This starts off going for it, as Leatherface kills a woman and skins her face for a mask while her sister Sara (Toni Hudson, Denise in Just One of the Guys) watches. We then meet Michelle (Kate Hodge), Ryan (William Butler) and Benny (Foree), who will be menaced by this film’s version of the Sawyer family, which includes Edward “Tex” Sawyer (Viggo Mortensen), Tinker “Tink” Sawyer (Jow Unger), “Mama” Anne Sawyer (Miriam Byrd-Nethery), Alfredo Sawyer (Tom Everett) and a little girl (Jennifer Banko).

Before long, Leatherface has killed Sara — after murdering her entire family — and caught Ryan in a bear trap. Michelle is taken into the Sawyer home and saved only when Benny shoots like ten thousand bullets into it, but hey, we still have Leatherface with a golden chainsaw that has “The saw is family written on it.

Burr wanted to shoot the film in Texas using 16 mm film just like the original, but New Line turned him down, as they had already built the house in California. I mean, they also shot that trailer before they had a script or a director, so all they cared about was money. That same house was used in Alice Cooper’s “House Of Fire” video. They also wanted Peter Jackson to direct.

Benny and Leatherface both died in the original cut, but New Line shot  a new ending with editor Michael N. Knue in which both characters survive after test screenings replied well to Foree’s character. Burr was shocked when he saw this in the movies, as he was never told there was a new ending.

This was also shot so close to a Six Flags that you can hear screaming all over the movie even when it may not need it.

This was cut to pieces — and not like how the Sawyers want to slice things up — to avoid an X rating. That’s why it had to be exciting to see Jeff Burr’s work print of this at CFF.

Speaking of the fest, you can watch so many of films by buying a pass on their website. I’ll be posting reviews and articles over the next few days, as well as updating my Letterboxd list of watches.

Junesploitation: Furia Aesina (1990)

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June 10: Junesploitation’s topic of the day — as suggested by F This Movie— is Sharksploitation! We’re excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what’s next.

Of all the movies that came in the wake of Jaws, I may be most fascinated by Tintorera…Tiger Shark. Based on the book by oceanographer Ramón Bravo (who discovered the sleeping sharks of Isla Mujeres and is also the underwater zombie in Lucio Fulci’s Zombi), it’s as much a shark film as its a softcore movie concerning the three-way relationship between its heroes. It’s also the only shark movie I’ve seen with full frontal male nudity.

Made 13 years after he made Tintorera, this is directed by René Cardona Jr. Mostly, it’s about ecological-minded scientists devoted to solving the riddle of AIDS by studying sharks and taking their antibodies. As you can imagine, this makes the sharks more murderous, if that’s possible. The film follows one of them and it beeps repeatedly, every time the camera gets close to it, as the Jaws theme plays. I don’t even think Joe D’Amato or Bruno Mattei had balls big enough — cojones maybe — to do that.

There’s also a BDSM serial killer on the loose, taking one of the scientists and tying her up. All with a Casio demo track synth soundtrack, filled with spandex and butt shots, shot on video and a release straight to home video. Also, Gerardo Zepeda, who plays Pariente in this, had quite the career, appearing in everything from El Topo to Sorceress, Dr. Tarr’s Horror Dungeon, Caveman, as the monster in Night of the Bloody Apes and as the Cyclops in Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Monsters.

It’s not as good as the original, but the fact that it exists and that I found means so much to me.

You can download this from the Internet Archive.

Dead Girls (1990)

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The Dead Girls are a shock rock band whose members are Gina Verelli, who goes by Bertha Beirut and is played by Diana Karanikas (Click: The Calendar Girl Killer); Dana Grant, who is Lucy Lethal and is played by Angela Eads (Fatal Images); Amy is Nancy Napalm and is played by Kay Schaber (Fatal Images);  her brother Mark, who is Randy Rot and played by Steven Kyle and Susie Stryker who is Cynthia Slain and is played by Angela Scaglione.

Their manager Artie (Brian Chin) has ideas to make them go mainstream, but the girls realize that they are mainly known for their death-obsessed lyrics more than their abilities. Much like the Stained Class and Ozzy Osbourne lawsuits that inspired this story, the band’s fans have been inspired by their lyrics to engage in a mass suicide. The biggest problem for Gina is that her sister Brooke (Ilene Singer) was one of them and barely survived. Now, Aunt Annie (Carol Albright) and Uncle Jim (Robert Morris) — who raised them with good Christian values — think that Gina is to blame.

The band decides to take a two week vacation to a remote cabin, bringing along Brooke, the band’s assistant Jeff (Jeff Herbick), Gina’s old boyfriend from home Mike (David Chatfield) and a groupie named Karen (Mara Holland). Moments after they depart, Artie is murdered by a masked person. Also along for the ride is a nurse (Deirdre West) who is helping Brooke to recover.

The small place they’re staying it is frightening from the beginning. Elmo (David Williams), the developmentally challenged handyman seems to be stalking everyone. And when they send the groupie away, she’s soon killed. The murder doesn’t stop, as Susie is drowned in the lake by the killer and her body is found by Amy. Her body disappears and the band think that it’s a prank, as she has died on stage several times and worked with a magician to learn how to slow her heart and breathing.

If you think that this feels like a giallo, that’s no accident. Writer Steven Jarvis was influenced by the Italian genre.

The next morning, Amy find Susie and Jeff’s corpses in a barn. Gina runs, trying to stop the nurse who is taking Brooke to the hospital. She doesn’t get to her, stranding the group in a place with cut phone lines and a sheriff (Robert Harden) who thinks that they’re all pulling a stunt. Dana believes that Amy and Gina are behind the murders and the group begins to battle amongst themselves.

Amy is obsessed with the military — after all her name is Nancy Napalm — and she sets bombs up all over the barn trying to stop the killer. Dana and Gina start to believe that Mark is the killer and while they’re discussing that, Amy is dismembered with an axe just as Mark returns with firewood. Gina finds her body and takes her gun, returning to find Dana tied up and Mark holding a pistol.

That’s when it all comes out. Dana and Mark wanted to kill Amy and Gina, thinking that they were the murderers. And then, the real killer shows up and slices Dana’s throat.  Gina runs with the killer following her. Mark kills Elmo and we think that’s the end…except…

Spoiler warning…

Mark is the real killer. He’s a religious man who thinks that the Dead Girls had to die to end their music and save teenagers. He accidentally steps on a bomb and blows up, just as the nurse returns, finding Gina tied up. Thinking — just like Mark — that they’re all evil, she leaves Gina tied up and drives away.

Director Dennis Devine (Things II, Fatal Images) said that the weather and cold temperatures made this the most difficult film of his career. I love the idea that the band is being killed by weapons from their songs. I just wish that they actually had a chance to play their songs. It’s so close to being a great metal movie and that would push it over the top.

VISUAL VENGEANCE ON TUBI: The Wrong Door (1990)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Did you know that Visual Vengeance has a ton of movies on Tubi? It’s true. Check out this Letterboxd list and look for reviews as new movies get added. You can find this movie on Tubi.

Ted Farrell (Matt Felmlee) loves a mystery. As a college student and singing telegram actor, he goes from creating an audio thriller into one of his own, as a gorgeous woman named Jennifer (Loreal Steiner) ends up near death in his car. Soon, her last boyfriend Jeff (Jeff Tatum) and his friend Vic (Chris Hall) are stalking him. Can he stay one step ahead?

Directed by the team of James Groetsch, Shawn Korby and Bill Weiss, this is a suspenseful story that is anything but a student film, even if it’s one made by students. Shot on Super 8, it seems to never stop moving or to get boring, always keeping the viewer guessing what happens next.

Plus, seeing as how it’s a movie about someone who tells stories with sound, it has plenty of audio design that moves the tale forward. A very rare regional horror thriller from the late 1980s video store era, The Wrong Door enjoys its first time ever thanks to Visual Vengeance.

I’ve thought about this movie so many times since I watched and definitely recommend it. It has a strange charm, like a noir film but one made in 1990 and with all the look of a Super 8 microbudget effort. It just works.

Tales from the Crypt S2 E18: The Secret (1990)

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We’ve hit the last episode of season 2 of Tales from the Crypt. Are you still out there reading?

This is based on one of the most reused plots in EC Comics: an orphan gets adopted by potentially evil parents but the twist ending changes it all up for everyone.

The Crypt Keeper starts it off by saying, “”What?! So where’s the twist? And I had such great expectations. Ah, now here is a story you can sink your teeth into. A toothsome tale of tommyrot guaranteed to scare the dickens out of you! Lean in, fright fans. I’m going to let you in on “The Secret.””

Theodore (Mike Simmrin) has left the Gaines Orphanage — get it? — and adopted by Colberts (Grace Zabriskie and William Frankfather) who give him whatever he wants but never let him leave his room. His only friend is the butler Tobias (Larry Drake) who was also an orphan. They’ve been sweetening his blood because, well, they’re vampires. But the secret is that he’s really a werewolf.

This episode was directed by J. Michael Riva, who only directed one other thing — an episode of Amazing Stories — and was mainly a production designer. It was written by Doug Ronning, who only wrote this script and one other episode of the show. It’s the second appearance of Larry Drake, who was memorably Santa in the second episode.

The story comes from “The Secret” which was in Haunt of Fear #24. That story was written by Carl Wessler and drawn by George Evans.

This is a wonderful episode to close the season out on. I’ll be back next week with the first episode of season three, “Loved to Death.”

Tales from the Crypt S2 E17: My Brother’s Keeper (1990)

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Directed by Peter S. Seaman (his only directing job, as he was the writer of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Doc Hollywood and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) who co-wrote it with Jeffrey Price (they also wrote those films together), “My Brother’s Keeper” is about cojoined twins Frank (Tim Stack) and Eddie (Jonathan Stark).

“Are you alone tonight? Well, consider yourself lucky…there could be two of you! And imagine what a fright-mare that could be. Just a reflection. Not so for tonight’s stars, Frank and Eddie. Two brothers who are touchingly close. When a woman tries to come between them, she finds herself caught in a tangled web of jealousy and intrigue. I think you’ll find it a twinning combination. So without futher ado, I bring you “My Brother’s Keeper.””

Frank is the good twin and Eddie the evil one. A doctor can get them apart, but there’s a fifty percent chance they’ll die, so Frank won’t undergo the operation. Frank falls for a girl named Maria (Jessica Harper!) who was actually hired by Eddie to push for the operation, even if Eddie keeps screwing up their dates and love life. He finally kills her with an axe which causes Frank to try and overdose on sleeping pills. When they wake up, they’ve been operated on, but who will the police arrest?

This episode is based on the story of the same name from Shock SuspenStories #16. It was written by William Gaines and Al Felder and drawn by George Evans.

VISUAL VENGEANCE ON TUBI: Power Slide (1990)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Did you know that Visual Vengeance has a ton of movies on Tubi? It’s true. Check out this Letterboxd list and look for reviews as new movies get added. You can find this movie on Tubi.

I’ve watched two of Steve Lustgarten’s movies — this and American Taboo — and I’m really surprised by his directing and writing. Both films seemed like stories I’d have no interest in and they each got me, watching on the edge of my seat.

Kyle Lockwood (Tim Vandeberghe) left town as soon as he could but now he’s back. Maybe Los Angeles didn’t work out like he wanted it to, but then again, the Nebraska small town of his past hasn’t fared that well either. The farmers are pretty much stuck growing marijuana thanks to a predatory drug lord who just so happens to be married to the girl that got away from Kyle.

Some people are happy to have him back home. The cops sure aren’t. They’re reminded of chasing him not all that long ago, him blowing their cars off the dirt trails that act as roads and getting away with it. They aren’t all that thrilled with him being back in town or disrupting the shadow world of cops making money off drugs they’ve enjoyed the last few years. The town has given up its soul and now the black sheep is back to try to pull it out of its thrall.

It’d be any other action movie but you care so much about each character that it just works. John Durbin, who plays main villain Gene Lynch, is so just plain detestable that you want to see everyone succeed. He gets the best exit I’ve seen in some time.

I really enjoyed the time I spent with the people in this movie. They feel real and I cared about what happened to them. How many films can say that?